The present invention relates to a system for remotely controlling the likes of household electrical apparatuses by means of key operations on a remote control transmitter and voices, in particular, a remote-controlled apparatus in the system, and further relates to an image-processing apparatus equipped with a GUI (graphical user interface) based on the system.
Recent household electrical apparatuses have acquired very enormous and various functions because of the advance of technology. For example, television (TV) sets have standard functions of channel selecting, turning on/off the power, adjusting the volume switching to the multichannel mode, and the like. In recent years, TV sets have further included such extensions to the functions as searching programs with EPG (electronic program guide), controlling over peripheral devices through i-Link (IEEE 1394) connection, and accessing to the Internet, as a result of functional digitalization and increase in the number of channels, which are associated with support for digital broadcasting.
The increase in the number of functions enhances the usefulness of devices, but complicates the operations, of the devices. Many household electric apparatuses include a remote control system with a remote control transmitter in order to simplify operations of users. In particular, apparatuses delivering a screen-display function (hereafter referred to as image-processing apparatuses), such as TV sets and video tape recorders (VTRs), implement a following GUI based on the remote control system. A user causes the apparatus to display an operation menu on the screen with the remote control transmitter. The user then moves the cursor appearing on the screen by means of key operations on the remote control transmitter, and thereby selects a category in the menu. When the selected category further includes subcategories, a menu of the subcategories appears on the screen. The user selects one of the subcategories in the menu through similar cursor operations. The image-processing apparatus performs the function corresponding to the thereby selected operation.
The above-described hierarchy of the menus increases in depth and complexity with a further increase in the number of the functions. Then, a selection of one of the categories generally requires a large number of steps of the movements through layers of the menus. Hence, the key operations on the remote control transmitter have to be repeated for a long time. Such long-time repeating of the key operations is not always easy for middle-aged and elderly users. Hence, a remote control system with voice control in addition to the key operations on the remote control transmitter has been developed. In the GUI based on the system, for example, the voices indicate the movements through layers of the menus, while the key operations on the remote control transmitter indicate the movements of the cursor on the screen. In this manner, the best use is made of the merits each of the voice control and the control with the key operations on the remote control transmitter, thereby improving the operability.
An example of conventional remote control systems is known as a remote voice-actuated control for VTR disclosed in “Terebi Gijutsu,” Denshi Gijutsu Shuppan (in Japanese), May 1991, pp. 38–44. This remote control system includes a VTR as a remote-controlled apparatus, and achieves the remote control over the VTR by means of key operations and voices through a remote control transmitter with a voice recognition device.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a remote control transmitter 100 included by the conventional remote control system. When a user presses a key of a keypad 101, a remote control pulse converter 102 selects a control code corresponding to the key, converts the control code into an electric signal, hereafter referred to as first remote control pulses P1, and sends out the signal. When the user speaks into a microphone 106 of the remote control transmitter 100, the voice is converted into a voice signal S through the microphone 106 and a low-frequency amplifier 107, and entered into a voice recognition section 108. The voice recognition section 108 compares the voice signal S with objects of voice recognition cataloged into a dictionary 109. The objects of voice recognition are cataloged usually on a word basis. The voice recognition section 108 selects a word W corresponding to the voice signal S from the dictionary 109, and then notifies an output controller 110. The output controller 110 accesses a control code storage section 111, and reads a control code C corresponding to the word W received. Here, the control code storage section 111 stores control codes corresponding to respective words cataloged into the dictionary 109. The output controller 110 reads the control code C, converts it into an electric signal (hereafter referred to as second remote control pulses P2), and sends out the signal. A remote control pulse selector 103 selects one of the first remote control pulses P1 and the second remote control pulses P2, and sends out it to an LED driver 104. The LED driver 104 causes an infrared light-emitting diode (LED) 105 to emit infrared rays according to the remote control pulses P received. For example, a pulse position modulation (PPM) is used as the modulation scheme of the infrared rays according to the remote control pulses. Thus, the infrared rays R modulated according to the remote control pulses P (hereafter referred to as remote control signal) are sent out to the VTR 200.
FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a part relevant to remote control in the remote-controlled apparatus, that is, the VTR 200 in the above-described conventional remote control system. A photoreceptor 201 comprises a photoreceptor device such as a photodiode and receives the infrared rays from the outside. A remote control signal detector 202 detects the remote control signal R from the remote control transmitter 100 out of the infrared rays received by the photoreceptor 201, and converts the remote control signal R into the remote control pulses P. A remote control pulse decoder 203 decodes the remote control pulses P into a control code C. A device controller 204 accesses a control data storage section 205, reads a command or an item of control data D corresponding to the control code C, and then performs a predetermined operation according to the command or the item of control data D. Thus, the conventional remote control system achieves the remote control over the VTR 200 by means of the key operations and voices through the remote control transmitter 100.
The control codes are predetermined for the respective operations of the VTR 200 and the respective items of control data to be provided for the VTR 200. Separate control codes are assigned to, for example, the respective commands indicating the operations of turning on/off the power, recording, replaying, pausing, fast forwarding, rewinding, and the like, and the respective items of control data specifying the like of the target channel and the start/stop time for the recording. The control data storage section 205 stores the correspondences between the control codes and the commands and the correspondences between the control codes and the items of control data.
In the conventional remote control system, when an operation of the VTR 200 or a item of control data for the VTR 200 is indicated, the remote control transmitter 100 selects a common control code and converts it into a common remote control signal R, regardless of the indication by means of a key operation or a voice. Accordingly, the VTR 200 can utilize the common configuration shown in FIG. 14 for remote control, regardless of the indication by means of a key operation or a voice through the remote control transmitter.
The transmission of the remote control signals based on infrared rays requires preventing confusion with similar remote control signals from other remote control systems. Hence, separate remote control systems avoid the use of the same control codes. This restricts the number of control codes assigned to each of the remote control systems using infrared rays. More specifically, only the order of one byte (=256) of the control codes is assigned to each product category, for example. On the other hand, the functions of remote-controlled apparatuses are increasing in number as described above. For example, satellite digital broadcasting includes channels numbered theoretically 101–999, even if limited in use, 200–300. Accordingly, the number of the control codes is insufficient only for establishing simple correspondences with the increasing number of the channels. The shortage of the control codes is more serious when a remote control transmitter assigns common control codes to both of the indications by means of key operations and voices in a manner of the above-described conventional remote control system. In fact, the present voice recognition technology requires words as many as or more than groups of channels to be selected by voices indicating a channel selection. In another example, the order of 100 words to be identified is required for a program search with EPG indicated directly by voices. Thus, for each operation, the number of the control codes to be assigned to the indication by means of voices far exceeds the number of the control codes to be assigned to the indication by means of key operations. Therefore, only a very small number of the control codes can be shared between both indications by means of key operations and voices. Because of that, the above-described remote control system has poor potential for expansion in functionality.
Another conventional remote control system is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. Hei 7-30982. This remote control system includes a VTR as a remote-controlled apparatus, and achieves the remote control over the VTR by means of key operations and voices through a remote control transmitter with a microphone. Here, in contrast to the above-described remote control system, the remote control transmitter performs frequency modulation on infrared rays according to user's voice itself, and transmits the infrared rays. Voice recognition is performed in the VTR, that is, the remote control receiver. Hence, the remote control system has greater potential for expansion in functionality than the above-described remote control system as follows.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a remote control transmitter 300 included in the conventional remote control system. The same reference symbols as those shown in FIG. 13 designate components similar to the conventional remote control transmitter 100 shown in FIG. 13. Furthermore, the above-mentioned description is cited regarding the details of the similar components.
When a user speaks to a microphone 106 of the remote control transmitter 300, the voice is converted into a voice signal S through the microphone 106 and a low-frequency amplifier 107, and entered into a frequency modulator 301. The frequency modulator 301 performs frequency modulation on a predetermined carrier according to the voice signal S. A remote control pulse selector 103 selects one of first remote control pulses P1 and the frequency-modulated voice signal PS, and sends out it to an LED driver 104. The LED driver 104 causes an infrared LED 105 to emit infrared rays according to either the first remote control pulses P1 or the frequency-modulated voice signal PS, thereby sending out a remote control signal R to the VTR 400.
FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a part relevant to remote control and voice recognition in the remote-controlled apparatus in the above-described-conventional remote control system, that is, the VTR 400. Here, parts similar to those of the conventional VTR 200 shown in FIG. 14 are designated by the same reference symbols as those in FIG. 14.
A remote-control-pulse/voice-signal selector 401 normally selects a first remote control signal detector 202A as a destination. Then, the remote control signal R received by a photoreceptor 201 is entered into the first remote control signal detector 202A. The first remote control signal detector 202A detects the first remote control pulses P1 out of the remote control signal R. A remote control pulse decoder 203 decodes the first remote control pulses P1 into a control code C. A first device controller 204 accesses a first control data storage section 205, reads a command or an item of control data D1 corresponding to the control code C, and further performs a predetermined operation according to the command or the item of control data D1. Thus, the remote control is achieved by means of key operations on the remote control transmitter 300.
On the other hand, the remote voice-actuated control is performed as follows. A second remote control signal detector 202B monitors the remote control signals R sent out from the photoreceptor 201 to the remote-control-pulse/voice-signal selector 401, thereby searching specific remote control pulses PT for indicating the start of voice recognition among the signals. The specific remote control pulses PT are transmitted from the remote control transmitter 300, for example, through key operations on the remote control transmitter 300. When the second remote control signal detector 202B has detected the specific remote control pulses PT, a voice recognition startup controller 402 switches the destination of the outputs of the remote-control-pulse/voice-signal selector 401 to an FM detector 403. Then, the remote control signal R received by the photoreceptor 201 is entered into the FM detector 403, thereby causing the FM detector 403 to start up. The first remote control signal detector 202A also detects the specific remote control pulses PT. At that time, the remote control pulse decoder 203 sends out a predetermined trigger signal T to a voice recognition section 404, thereby causing the voice recognition section 404 to start up. The FM detector 403 detects the frequency-modulated voice signal PS among the remote control signals R, and decodes it into the original voice signal S. The voice recognition section 404 compares the decoded voice signal S with each object of voice recognition cataloged into a dictionary 405. The objects of voice recognition are cataloged usually on a word basis. The voice recognition section 404 selects a word W corresponding to the voice signal S from the dictionary 405, and then notifies a second device controller 406. The second device controller 406 accesses a second control data storage section 407, reads a command or an item of control data D2 corresponding to the word W received. Here, the second control data storage section 407 stores the commands and the items of control data corresponding to the respective words cataloged into the dictionary 405. The second device controller 406 further performs a predetermined operation according to the command or the item of control data D2.
In this remote control system, the remote-controlled apparatus or the VTR 400 includes the voice recognition section 404 and the dictionary 405 instead of the remote control transmitter 300. Accordingly, the size and power of the remote control transmitter 300 do not restrict the scaleup of the circuit associated with, for example, an enlargement of the vocabulary of the dictionary 405 and an upgrade of the algorithm. On the other hand, the remote control transmitter 300 transmits the voice signal itself by means of infrared rays. Accordingly, the indications by means of voices do not require the assignments of the control codes, thereby circumventing the restriction on the number of the control codes. Thus, the above-described remote control system has potential for expansion in the functionality of being voice-actuated and of performing the voice recognition itself.
The above-described remote control system may provide, for example, a following GUI specifically for the indications by means of voices. When the VTR 400 is connected to a TV set, the second device controller 406 controls screen display section 408 according to the indications by means of voices, thereby displaying predetermined images on the screen (hereafter referred to as TV screen) of the TV set. By the use of such an image processing function, information on the voice recognition is displayed on the TV screen and fed back to the user. The items of such information include, for example, notifications of the proper timing of speaking for the user, lists of words recognized and the candidates, and the details of operations recognized. In addition, information of errors, when the errors occur in the voice recognition, may appear on the TV screen. Through the feedback of such information displayed on the screen, the user easily adjusts pronunciations, speeds, intonations, and loudness likely to succeed in recognition.
In the likes of the conventional remote control system shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, the remote control transmitter assigns common control codes to the indications by means of key operations and voices. In this case, the number of the control codes assigned to each of the remote control systems is restricted, since the separate remote control systems avoid the use of the same control codes. Thus, in the likes of the remote control system shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, the number of the control codes is insufficient, and thereby expansion in functionality is difficult.
In the likes of the conventional remote control system shown in FIGS. 15 and 16, the remote-controlled apparatus performs voice recognition instead of the remote control transmitter. Accordingly, the size and power of the remote control transmitter do not restrict the scaleup of the circuit associated with expansion in the functionality of voice recognition. On the other hand, the remote control transmitter transmits the voice signal itself by means of the infrared rays. Accordingly, the available number of the control codes does not restrict the types of the indications by means of voices. Thus, the likes of the remote control system shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 have greater potential for expansion in functionality than the likes of the system shown in FIGS. 13 and 14.
Nevertheless, the likes of the conventional remote control system shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 have the following problem. In this remote control system, the remote-controlled apparatus such as the VTR 400 uses control information in the two data forms of remote control pulses and voice signals. Accordingly, the VTR 400 comprises separate control lines between the remote control pulses and the voice signals, as shown in FIG. 16. More specifically, the VTR 400 comprises two separate device controllers, the first device controller 204 according to the control codes C indicated by remote control pulses and the second device controller 406 according to words W entered by means of voices.
The size of the chassis restricts the overall size of the circuitry of these two device controllers. Accordingly, it is desirable that the two device controllers be designed on a single circuit board with a common CPU. However, the difference in data form between the items of control information, that is, the control codes C and the words W, complicates integration of the two device controllers. In particular, a substantial change is required by the chassis design in the configuration of the conventional remote control system based only on the remote control pulses, but it is undesirable because of technical difficulty and, in addition, an increase in cost.